The Influence of Terrorist Attacks on the Agendas of Eurosceptic Right-Wing Parties

• 17 attacks in 2015
• 33 attacks in 2017
• 24 attacks in 2018

Sentiment of doubt and distrust towards the European Union and its policies

• British PM Margaret Thatcher
• EU enlargement in the 1990s
• Ratification of the Maastricht Treaty and the introduction of the common currency

• 2008 Financial Crisis
• 2015 Immigration Crisis
• COVID Pandemic
• War in Ukraine

• Immigration (40% in 2018)
• Terrorism (19%)
• Financial Crisis (18%)

2008-2012: 6.6 million citizens moved across States

Guaranteed between borders for people, goods, capital, labor, and services

Ensures equal access to labor market and profitable working conditions

Article 45(1) of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the Union

Every citizen of the Union has the right to move and reside freely within the territory of the Member States

Established in 1985

Abolishes border controls on goods and on people

States can temporarily re-establish controls, as asked by many States in 2015-2016

• Main French Right-wing Party

• Gained importance in the 2010s under the guidance of Marine Le Pen (34% of consensus)

• EU seen as a threat for domestic jurisdiction and democracy

• France should have its legislative economic, territorial, and monetary sovereignty restored

• Calls for the abolition of the Schengen Agreement

• Delaying in building mosques
• Ban on full-length swimwear for women
• Proposal of a charter against the admission of asylum seekers

Terrorist attacks carried out in the EU had an extensive impact on political discourses of Eurosceptic Right-wing parties, especially of Rassemblement National

• Collection of relevant articles and speeches

• Analysis of a dataframe for Rassemblement National

• Performing LDAs and creation of graphs to display the most used terminology for both parties

Alonso-Muñoz, Laura, et. al., “Populism Against Europe in Social Media: the Eurosceptic Discourse on Twitter in Spain, Italy, France, and United Kingdom during the Campaign of the 2019 European Parliament Election”, Frontiers in Communication, Volume 5, 07 August 2020, Populism Against Europe in Social Media: The Eurosceptic Discourse on Twitter in Spain, Italy, France, and United Kingdom During the Campaign of the 2019 European Parliament Election

Beenhakker, Sanna, “Loving Europe, Hating the EU. Between EU-Skepticism and Europe-philia: the RN and AfD as a Case Study for the Eurosceptic Discourse of National-Populist Parties in Europe”, Utrecht University, 2023 Love Europe, hate the EU? Between EU-scepticism and Europe-philia: The RN and AfD as a case-study for the Eurosceptic discourse of national-populist parties in Europe (uu.nl)

European Council, “Terrorism in the EU: Facts and Figures”, Terrorism in the EU: facts and figures - Consilium (europa.eu)

Frey, Arun, “Getting Under the Skin: the Impact of Terrorist Attacks on Native and Immigrant Sentiment”, Social Forces, Vol. 101, Issue 2, pp. 943-973, December 2021, Getting under the Skin: The Impact of Terrorist Attacks on Native and Immigrant Sentiment | Social Forces | Oxford Academic

Froio, Caterina, “The Rassemblement National and Covid-19: How Nativism, Authoritarianism and Expert Populism did not Pay Off during the Pandemic”, Government and Opposition (2022), 1-21, The Rassemblement National and COVID-19: How Nativism, Authoritarianism and Expert Populism Did Not Pay Off during the Pandemic | Government and Opposition | Cambridge Core

Guild, Elspeth, “Schengen Borders and multiple National States of Emergency: from Refugees to Terrorism to COVID-19”, European Journal of Migration and Law, Vol. 23, pp. 385-404, 2021, Schengen Borders and Multiple National States of Emergency

Kouri, Georgia D., “Case Study: Paris Terrorist Attack November 2015, Crisis Management and the Role of the Media”, International Journal of Occupational Health and Public Nursing, Vol. 3, No. 2, 2016, pp. 31-43, Case study: Paris Terrorist attack November 2015, crisis management and the role of media

Maciejewski, Mariusz, “The Maastricht and Amsterdam Treaties”, European Parliament, October 2023, The Maastricht and Amsterdam Treaties | Fact Sheets on the European Union.

Mardal, Sander, “Extremist Parties and Their Euroscepticism: a Comparison of the Differences in the Euroscepticism of the Radical Right-Wing Parties UKIP and Vox España”, NTNU, May 2020, NTNU Open: Extremist Parties and Their Euroscepticism: A comparison of the Differences in the Euroscepticism of the Radical Right-Wing Parties UKIP and Vox España

Peace, Timothy, “Populist Pragmatism: the Nationalization of Local Government Strategies by the Rassemblement National”, Acta Politica (2024), Vol. 59, pp. 264-288, Populist pragmatism: the nationalisation of local government strategies by the Rassemblement National

Roos, Christof, “The Conditionality of EU Freedom of Movement: Normative Change in the Discourse of EU Institutions”, Journal of European Social Policy, 2020, Vol. 30(1), pp. 63-78, The conditionality of EU freedom of movement: Normative change in the discourse of EU institutions - Christof Roos, Laura Westerveen, 2020

Talving, Lisa, “Opportunity or Threat? Public Attitudes Towards EU Freedom of Movement”, Journal of European Public Policy, Vol. 26, No. 805-823, 2019, Full article: Opportunity or threat? Public attitudes towards EU freedom of movement Treaty on the European Union, CONSOLIDATED VERSION OF THE TREATY ON EUROPEAN UNION

Ultan, Mehlika Ozlem, “Euroscepticism in the European Union”, International Journal of Social Sciences, Vol. IV, No. 2/2015, (PDF) EUROSCEPTICISM IN THE EUROPEAN UNION (researchgate.net)

Vasilopoulou, Sophia, “Varieties of Euroscepticism: the Case of the European Extreme Right”, JCER; Volume 5, Issue 1, 2009, Varieties of Euroscepticism: The Case of the European Extreme Right | Journal of Contemporary European Research (jcer.net)